Hungary indicts camerawoman who kicked refugees

Petra Laszlo charged with disorderly conduct after she was filmed kicking and tripping refugees fleeing police.

08 Sep 2016 04:31 GMT

The incident caused international outrage after footage of her actions went viral on social media [Reuters]

Hungarian prosecutors have filed charges against a camerawoman who was filmed kicking and tripping refugees fleeing police near the country's southern border with Serbia last year.

Petra Laszlo was charged on Wednesday for disorderly conduct after "she kicked a young man in the shin with a swift kick of the sole of her right foot, and also kicked [a] young girl around the knee with her right foot", prosecutors said in a statement, according to Reuters news agency.

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Prosecutors also said hat Laszlo had "kicked towards a man carrying a child in his hands, but the kick did not reach the man", in one of the accusations she had faced during last year's online furore.

"The man carrying the child still fell, because ... one of the policemen tried to catch and restrain him, and he lost his balance as he broke free."

According to prosecutors, there was no evidence of a racially motivated hate crime.

The incident, which occurred in September 2015, caused international outrage after footage of her actions went viral on social media.

Laszlo, who later apologised, was fired from her job at N1TV, a private right-wing television station in Hungary.